ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: W3DQ
Operator(s): W3DQ N8HM W2CDO
Station: W3DQ
Class: M/S HP
QTH: DC
Operating Time (hrs): 31
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 18 16
80: 75 41
40: 111 49
20: 265 86
15: 453 89
10: 146 57
-------------------
Total: 1068 338 Total Score = 1,082,952
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
What a difference a year makes. 2015 was a bust. This year was much better,
although it didn't start that way.
Operating in n a tag-team M/S can be a lonely job. It's equivalent to a serial
Single-Op, the difference being that the last person operating has
significantly less to work with, especially if those preceding him have done
well. The strategy and experience for each operator is, necessarily, different.
Friday night was oh, so s-l-o-w. Peter, W2CDO, slugged it out, but it was so
slow that we considered a part-time effort. Fortunately, he and we labored on.
Saturday (my day) was much better. 20m opened at 1200z and 10m a bit later. I
didn't run then, but probably should of. Saturday evening wasn't all that good.
It was surprisingly slow for me from the late afternoon on. I could blame some
of that on the curse of being in the city.
Sunday morning and early afternoon were great. Paul, N8HM, had a sustained run
of over 100/hr, a rare event from this QTH. 20 through 10 were really hopping!
Overall, the conditions were as odd as other have reported. Stations showed up
with the antennas pointed in "non-traditional" directions. Some
pileups were unexpectedly easy to bust, others surprisingly hard.
We worked 13 on all 6 bands along with parts of the world that we usually don't
hear in this noisy, urban environment. In light of W3LPL's recent posting on the
value of a dB, it's time to look at both sides of the chain. I need to clean up
as much of the noise as poorly this city's maintained infrastructure (not to
mention the ancient wiring in this old house) as I can. Once done, maybe I can
replace my 500w amp with a KW without worrying about lighting up the
neighborhood. (I received a repeat RFI complaint from my now forgiving
neighbor. That, too, appear to be curable).
It's also time to improve the 40 and 80m antennas, as those two bands are our
true Achilles heel. On the other hand, the roof mounted C3-SS really plays.
We had no equipment problems at all. Yeah! Some quirks with N1MM+ (probably
operator error), but certainly no show stoppers.
Thanks to Paul, N8HM, and Peter, W2CDO, for their efforts and camaraderie. It's
always fun to have them here. They're great ops and fun to be with. Where else
can you operate in a contest while having C-SPAN on the TV :-)
73,
Eric W3DQ
Washington, DD
Orion 565 & Hercules amp (500w)
C3-SS (roof mounted)
Inv-L for 160/80/40
noisy city environment
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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